On Monday, March 7th, a coalition of leading education, parent, business and community organizations held a press conference at the Legislative Office Building to express its strong opposition to SB 380, An Act Concerning the Exclusion of Student Performance Results on the Mastery Examination from Teacher Evaluations. The proposed legislation seeks to prohibit the use of Smarter Balanced Assessment data in the evaluation process. Executive Director Karissa Niehoff and two CAS board members presented testimony opposing the bill. On Wednesday May 9th, the Performance Evaluation Education Council met and passed two very important recommendations essentially rendering SB 380 unnecessary.

The CAS Middle Level Scholar Leader Banquet is scheduled for Sunday, May 22, 2016, at 4:30 at the Aqua Turf in Plantsville. This event is designed to give recognition to one boy and one girl from each middle school in Connecticut who have demonstrated outstanding scholarship and leadership in their school and community. Registration is now open!

Registration is open for KiDSMARATHON 2016, an amazing life fitness program that can be easily implemented in any school setting. KiDSMARATHON is an eight- to ten-week training program for students aged 7-12. Participants complete a full marathon by running incremental distances each week and finishing the last mile with hundreds of peers at a regional site. The training can take place before, during, or after school. Using the mantra "winning is finishing and finishing is winning," KiDSMARATHON helps students develop life-long fitness skills, social-emotional learning, a feeling of accomplishment and self-confidence.

The 15th Annual Arts in the Middle Conference will be held on May 17, 2016, at the University of Hartford’s Art School. This hands-on conference provides middle level art students with opportunities to participate in high quality workshops involving both traditional and non-traditional artistic media. While primarily for students, art teachers are encouraged to sign up for workshops and participate as learners. Working artists lead all of the sessions.

The Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut is hosting its first annual Teacher Leadership Academy, a one-week intensive program designed to develop teacher leadership skills. The academy will help participants enhance their ability to support high quality instruction and cultivate competencies to strengthen their effectiveness as teacher leaders. Please consider nominating a teacher leader from your school.

The CT State Department of Education is now accepting submissions from Connecticut middle and high schools for the statewide Challenge to Educational Citizenship Awards. Any student-organized activity that represents a “good deed” is eligible for submission. Projects submitted for consideration should demonstrate good citizenship, a commitment to helping others, civic awareness, leadership, responsibility and teamwork. If you have a program or activity in your school that you feel might be worthy of this award, please consider submitting a nomination.

STILL TIME TO REGISTER FOR FULL-DAY WORKSHOP ON MASTERY-BASED LEARNING

On March 23rd, the CT State Department of Education and the New England Secondary School Consortium will host a full-day workshop on mastery-based learning (MBL) for district and school leadership teams. Mastery-Based Learning: What, Why, and How It Can Help will focus on the core elements of mastery-based learning and provide opportunities for school-assessment in the key areas of teaching and learning, organizational design, and school leadership. Teams will discuss the what and why of MBL and how it can help schools improve so that students will graduate college, career, and citizenship ready and prepared to compete in a globally competitive world.

The Legal Mailbag column is written by Attorney Thomas Mooney of the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education. Readers are invited to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. One question and its answer will be published in this column each week. Questions may be edited; authors will not be identified; and answers cannot be considered formal legal advice. Please submit questions to: legalmailbag@casciac.org

Dear Legal Mailbag:I have heard of the Freedom of Information Act; however, in my administrative preparation courses, the professors glossed over it and I never really understood the nuances of public records and the concomitant disclosure requirements. I must quickly get up to speed now, because there is a gadfly who unfortunately has set his sights on my school.